HOW NAIA FIRST SAW JASOR
The car slowed down and stood still. Robur sprang to his feet. Croft
turned to look back. The carriage was off the road and dashing across a
level stretch of sand.
How it came that Prince Lakkon's carriage was here, neither man knew.
They were to only learn later that Naia, wearied of her preparations
for the coming feast of betrothal, had induced her father to take
her to her mountain home on the previous night, and that now she was
returning in time to avoid the later heat of the Sirian day. Yet both
men had recognized the purple-plumed gnuppas and the conveyance which
now swayed and rocked behind their fright-maddened flight.
"Lakkon's!" Croft gasped.
"Aye, by Zitu," Robur gave assent. "And should Chythron fail to hold
them soon, death lies in that direction at the bottom of the gorge."
"Sit down. Hold fast!" Even as Robur spoke, Croft sensed his full
meaning and planned. Under his touch the engine roared. He let in his
clutch with a jerk which shot the car into motion with a leap. Death
lay ahead of the careening carriage behind the beasts he had frightened
out of their driver's control. Whether Chythron alone, or Lakkon or
the prince and his daughter rode in that rocking conveyance it was his
place to do what he could. Leaving the road with a lurch which nearly
unseated Robur and himself, he swung the car about and increased its
speed.
He had told Jadgor he would build an engine to outrun the Tamarizian
gnuppa, and here at once was the test. True Croft thought not of that
in any such fashion as he drove. His only fear was lest he fail to
overhaul the flying beasts in time. His greatest fear was that Naia
herself might be in that frantic rush toward death, hurtling to an end
invoked at his hands. His soul sank in a sick wave of horror. Yet he
set his lips and clenched his jaws and drove. Faster and faster leaped
the roaring car behind the leaping things of flesh and blood he sought
to overtake.
And he was overtaking them now. He crossed the second road with a
nerve-wracking swing and jolt. Unable to procure rubber for his wheels
he had faced them with heavy leather some two inches thick, which
lacked the resiliency of air. His arms ached from the wrench with
which he crossed the road. But that past he gathered speed with every
revolution of the wheels.
"Faster! Zitu! Faster!" Robur urged at his side. "Faster, Jasor--the
gorge is just ahead!"
Croft made no reply. He was almost abreast of the carriage now. But he
himself had seen the break in the surface of the flat across which he
drove. He set his teeth till the muscles in his strong jaws bunched and
drove toward it at top speed. His one hope was that the thing which had
set the gnuppas into flight might be able to turn them back.
And he was past them now! Past them, with the gorge directly ahead. He
began to edge in upon them. He would stop them or turn them at any cost
to himself. And the margin was scant. Nearer and nearer to the lip of
the sheer descent he was forced to turn in order to hold his lead.
"Jump! Save yourself!" His voice rose in a cry of warning to his
companion in the car. The gorge was very close. He turned to parallel
its course and found it angling off at a slant. And the gnuppas were
turning, too--edging away from the thing they feared--edging, edging
away. Croft edged with them, turning them more and more. Chythron was
sawing on his reins. Suddenly the beasts stopped in a series of ragged
lunges and stood quivering and panting. Croft stopped the car.
"By Zitu! Jasor, you are a man!"
He became conscious that Robur was still with him on the seat, and that
he himself was aquiver in every limb.
Yet he forgot that as the purple curtains of the carriage were swept
back and Prince Lakkon leaped out, gave Robur and him a swift glance,
and assisted Naia to alight.
* * * * *
Robur and he leaped down. They advanced toward Lakkon and his daughter.
"My uncle and my cousin," Robur began; "we crave your pardon for
causing you this inconvenience through no intent of our own. Yet must
you give thanks to our brave Lord Jasor here for undoing our work so
quickly as he might, and turning back the gnuppas from their course. By
Zitu, I am assured, had he not succeeded he would have gone with you
into the gorge."
Lakkon bowed. "My Lord Jasor," said he, "it appears that I owe you my
safety as well as that of my child. Accept my service at your need. I
have heard of you and yonder wonder-carriage you have wrought. After
tonight I go to my villa in the mountains. You must be our guest for a
time. Naia, my child, extend your thanks to the noble Jasor for your
life."
Croft found himself looking into the purple eyes of the woman he loved.
He thrilled as she lifted her glance. Then, as her red lips parted, he
opened his own. "Nay, not your life, Princess Naia--some bruises had
you leaped from the carriage, perhaps."
"My thanks for the service none the less, my lord," she made answer in
her own well-remembered voice. "I like not bruises truly, and at least
you did save me those."
She extended a slender hand.
Croft took her fingers in his and found his pulses leaping at the
contact. What more favorable meeting could have brought him before this
girl in the flesh? Prompted by a sudden impulse, he bent and set his
lips to the fingers he held, straightened and looked deep into the
wells of her eyes.
A swift color mounted into the maiden's cheeks at the unwonted form of
homage and the fire in Croft's glance. She dropped her lids and seemed
confused for the first time during the course of the whole affair.
Robur broke into the rather tense pause. "What say you, Lakkon; your
gnuppas are hardly fit to be trusted more today. Enter this car our
Hupor has built, and be the first Prince of Aphur to enter Himyra thus."
Lakkon smiled. He spoke to Chythron, ordering him to drive the gnuppas
to the city as best he might. Then, with Croft acting as Naia's guide,
turned with Robur toward the car.
Nor was he niggard in his praise as Croft started the engine, and
placing the girl beside him, drove back to the road and along it to the
city gates. He even laughed with enjoyment at the further consternation
their progress caused along the road, and when a team of draft gnuppas
bolting, scattered a mass of broken crates full of the strange
water-fowl Croft had found the first day, in a squawking confusion, he
scattered largess to the owner of team and load and bade Croft proceed.
As for Croft, that ride with the girl of his ultimate desire at his
side was a delight such as he had never known. Coupled with the sense
that he had saved her from possible injury at least, if not from
actual death, and at the same time proved his own daring, was blended
the sheer enjoyment of her presence and the sound of her voice as she
questioned him concerning the, to her marvelous, conveyance he drove.
Those questions he answered freely, knowing her loyal to Tamarizia at
heart.
So in the end they passed the city gates and made their way to Lakkon's
house, where Croft turned in toward the massive moulded doors.
Naia showed some surprise. "My lord," she said, "you know our dwelling,
it would seem."
"I have looked upon it with longing ere this," said Croft, growing bold
through the kindness of fate. For fate he felt it was which had brought
them together in a fashion such as this.
And Naia gave him a glance and once more veiled her eyes while a tide
of responsive color dyed her face. Plainly she caught the meaning of
his words.
"Your name is among those of our guests for tonight," she said. "Your
welcome will be doubly great after today, and--you will accept our
invitation to the mountains?"
"If you add your invitation to your father's, so soon as I may arrange
the work on other moturs," Croft agreed.
"Then you will come," she told him softly without lifting her eyes. And
Croft thrilled at her manner as much as at her words. He stopped the
car, reached up and rang the gong as Chythron had done the first day he
came to Aphur, leaped out and assisted Naia to alight.